This is something that bothers me. I see EVs as future and a next step in car evolution, but why all of them have to be connected? Why most people don’t have problem with it? I’m not talking about Chinese cars, but all of them.
20 years ago if you would say a car could be hacked one would laugh and say that this only happens in sci-fi movies, now this is a reality. And that’s not the only threat, there’s a huge implication with privacy. Why people are so not caring about it?
Because it is easy.
That is it. It is easy and cheap to make cars connected because of abysmal lack of regulation and the massive IoT chip industry
Integrating wireless radios into products is standard by now and chips required to do anything but 5g are extremely cheap. GPS is also dirt cheap. The biggest costs by far are design hours and certification.
Then they can make money because of the software “features” that only take man hours to develop as well as sell your tracking days after the fact. Together with the fact that if the market says that most people want those convenience features and couldn’t care less about their valuable data as we have seen through every tech industry, there is little reason NOT to put in those features, especially when it enables OTA car firmware updates also.
They don’t “all” have to be connected, the vast majority of available global models aren’t (IE a lot of the affordable Indian/Chinese models).
The vast majority of models sold in the USA are IE Tesla. More affordable models like the Renault Zoe afaik aren’t but I’m not sure how accessible these are in the USA. I’m not sure about the Chevvy Volt tbh… Consumers can purchase to buy a non-connected vehicle.
Out of the EVs I have I mostly use the one that is connected so I can do automations to turn on climate control etc. Connectivity is a convenience/safety thing for me and I assume others…
Obviously the whole security threat thing is just BS to justify restricting trade. You’re really not allowed to restrict trade under wto rules unless it’s a national security concern. It makes sense that the US would want to protect its industry but, it’s really infuriating that the US, the country that thrust neoliberalism free trade policies down developing countries throats, sometimes by force, now wants to do protectionism. Many developing economies growth was hampered and their economic ability to met their own needs to spiked into the ground by American coercion and sometimes violence. It further goes to show that the powerful countries really just do whatever the fuck they want often at the detriment of weaker nations.
They did the same to Huawei and lots followed. This has nothing to do with security and all to do with preventing China’s leap ahead of US as a global economic technology powerhouse
It does have something to do with security.
For Huawei, the USA was concerned that China could build in backdoors to its communication technology similar to how the USA probably does with its local technology.
For EV, it is becoming apparent that battery and microchip technology has the same wartime industry power that oil and steel has, so the USA doesn’t want to completely give up on those industries.
For Huawei , if that’s the case why did US not target all Chinese manufacturers and only the one that, at the time, was becoming the most technologically competitive one.
As for EV the argument regarding takeover as a wartime industry whilst maybe true not it still smacks of US protectionist practice rather than a genuine security fear.
It’s not Huawei’s fault that outdated IP restrictions in the west put western companies at a disadvantage and slow innovation.
Tesla is also a security risk like all others
What do you imagine China is going to do to you from the other side of the world? Feed you targeted ads? Attack you with Havana Syndrome or turn you into a Manchurian Candidate via 5G?
It seems like the “cars tracking you” problem is a very real and very serious thing that should obviously be legislated separately of electric vehicles or country of manufacture.
I got a Mazda recently, and I was reading all the ownership paperwork, and the guy asked me what I was looking for. I said “I’m looking for the language about what data Mazda is collecting about me.” And the guy laughed and said there’s nothing in the paperwork about that. They just do it. You can’t shut it off.
Question: Who is paying for all these 5G Cell connections that ‘every car has’? How is my data getting from my car in my garage to (Brand name)?
I sure as shit am not giving my car my wifi password.
Is my Android phoning home? How does it know who to phone home to?
Car manufacturers are. They probably get a bulk discount on relatively cheap data plans. It was enough for GM to keep OnStar running until Verizon got rid of supporting all 2G and 3G service in the USA.
Do we know how long they are paying for that connection?
I can’t imagine that’s cheap. Is a 2016 car internet connected without my notice? How do you confirm?
Amazon did a thing where if your wifi is down Alexa can connect to a neighbors Alexa which will relay the message to the server.
I imagine a car could do the same much easier, you pull up to the lights next to a car from the same manufacturer and it relays all your telemetrics.
It’s time for an open source car.
Yeah fair I am sure there is almost as much sketchy shit in Chinese electric cars as American ones, I just can’t find the fucks to care compared to the threat of ecological and agricultural collapse from climate change.
Like seriously I know it’s more satisfying and intriguing to talk security, technology, software and geopolitics but really who gives a fuck. Literally none of this even remotely matters next to the existential emergency that is climate change.
So sure, cheap Chinese electric cars lets go who cares honestly, we don’t have the damn time to focus on making this into a Cold War Tom Clancy novel before we run out of shit like clean water to drink.
If you care about climate change, then you would be anti-car period. Biden is 100% correct here (but not for the reasons he thinks,) cars are a security threat.
